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The real boom in papier mache miniatures
began at the end of the 18th century when a Russian merchant, P. I. Korobov,
opened a workshop in Danilkovo, now Fedoskino, another village near Moscow.
Three factors induced Korobov to start his new business: The cheap availability
of gifted icon painters who were becoming under or unemployed; the new customs
regulations abolishing the export tax on snuff-boxes; and their new-found
popularity among Russians. After making a trip to Germany, from which he
returned with a few models and some German specialists, Korobov started his
small factory of snuff-boxes, jewel-cases, trays, jewelry and tea boxes,
decorative plates, Easter eggs and all sorts of objects made of papier mache
and decorated by former icon painters. The factory was considerably enlarged by
his son-in-law, P.V. Lukutin and his descendants, and at one time employed
almost a hundred men, and had a special school to train new artists. Lukutin
was a very capable man, and produced miniatures to satisfy almost any taste,
from exotic Russian troikas, tea-drinking and village scenes for the foreign
market, to patriotic themes and portraits of the Russian heroes who defended
the country and conquered Napoleon. To please the taste of demanding
aristocrats, who until then preferred imports, Lukutin offered miniatures with
charming scenes from the national folklore and reproductions of paintings of
well-known foreign and domestic artists. The demand was so great that at one
time the factory was unable to keep up, though in 1804 over 13,000 boxes were
put on the market and this figure was later more than doubled.
To paint their papier mache objects Lukutin's artists followed the method that
prevailed among other contemporary Russian miniature painters. They used oil
paint, not egg tempera as some foreigners have said. There were usually three
or four coats applied and each was allowed to dry, then covered with
transparent lacquer and finally polished. This multi-layer of paint offered
rich and startling color contrasts that pleased the eye.
The painters followed one of two techniques: "Compact" (plotnii) with
opaque colors, painted with great care and finished with a top layer of
transparent color to achieve greater intensity; second, "Transparent"
(po skvoznomu) with the use of several layers of only translucent colors,
applied in such a way as to give maximum intensity. The latter technique was
used for miniatures painted on a mother-of-pearl or gold ground, or for cheaper
items on silver powder that was first glued to the papier mache surface,
achieving a jewel-like appearance. The effects thus obtained were often at the
expense of high artistic values, which Lukutin's son and later his grandson
were unable to fully preserve. When N.A. Lukutin died in 1902 his wife took
care of the factory but could not manage it successfully, and decided to close
it down two years later. Now let us return to Palekh in 1924 and after, when a
good many former"Icon-daubers," as artistic snobs used to call
iconographers joined "The Palekh Artel of Ancient Painting," to
employ their talents and skills in making papier mache objects instead of
icons, as another group of unemployed icon painters did when they entered
Korobov's factory as over a century before. While they did everything possible
to preserve their specific traditional technical methods and style, the new
regime compelled them to switch over to political and ideological subjects and
themes that would enhance the prestige of the Bolsheviks. Instead of painting
for the Church and believes, they painted in the beginning for the Soviet
government and party organizations. Under the circumstances it was not
surprising to see Lenin replace Jesus, scenes of kolkhoz life replace hunting
and fishing scenes, portraits of leftist writers, heroes of labor and fighters
for peace replace episodes related to saints, and new holidays replaced the old
religious ones. The trouble was that the new personages often looked like
angels, and the Artel painters were often remanded by communist art critics of
the lack of "Socialist realism," in their new art. Indeed it was hard
for the painters to separate themselves from their training and from
centuries-old traditions, which is why they preferred to draw their subjects
from old fairy-tales, poems, epics and folklore in general, or copy popular
18th or 19th century oil paintings.
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